In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

Film Trailer

Camera Shots- The camera shots I used in the trailer all relate

to the genre of my film (romantic drama). There are many

shots that can relate to this genre because of the wide

variety of emotions that you are able to portray throughout.

The first of these shots is the close-up. The close-

up shot allows the audience of the film to visually

see the emotion from the character and this

enables them to see the mood the character and

the film in general is in. This example above shows

how this character is confused and shocked so

this tells the audience that the drama part of the

trailer is starting. All this is told via the facial

expressions of the character and with the

different genres having the possibility of switching

between each other, it is vitally important that

the audience are kept up to speed with what is

going on in the trailer and in the film itself so this

is why close-ups are important to romantic drama

films and because of this, why they are a

prominent feature in my film trailer.

These two screenshots above are examples of the

different types of edits (video transitions) I use in

the trailer. Fades, dissolves and cuts are all

typically used in Romantic Drama films as they

represent the different moods of the film which

romantic dramas have much of. Dissolves show

the change in time and as my trailer starts in the

present and looks back into the past, a dissolve is

needed here to change the time of the trailer.

Fades are a more relaxed form of editing and can

be used to slow the pace of the trailer again.

These are used in my trailer in the starting stages

of the trailer as it is looking at her past life which

requires slow paced editing. Cuts are

predominantly used in the drama part of the

trailer which is the case. Cuts create the quick

paced trailer that it should be because it moves

straight from one shot to the next creating a

sense of urgency.

Mise en scene

The colour of the diary was purposely chosen to

be red for this film trailer. Red is a typical colour

associated with romance so I thought that it was a

suitable colour to have the diary in.

Sound

The sound was an important part of the creative

process for me. Composing the music myself was

a huge task and was a big challenge to sync the

music into the trailer the way I want it. The

trailer’s soundtrack changed as the mood of the

trailer changed which reinforced to the audience

this change of mood. The soundtrack has the

same constant instrumentation which is strings

and piano which shows the link between the two

genres to the film but the way in which these

instruments are used to create the different

moods allows the soundtrack to stick to the

conventions of the romantic drama film.

The voiceover for the beginning of the trailer is

the female lead. It is very common in romantic

drama films to have one of the lead characters,

especially the female lead, taking the role of the

voiceover as it allows the audience to feel

involved with the trailer more as it sounds like the

characters are addressing them directly and it is

claimed that the female lead always has more

thoughts which allows the audience to get a

better in-depth knowledge. At the point of the

drama element of the film starting, the voiceover

changes to a male who is non-related to any

character of the film.

Scenery- The different settings used in the trailer

have been used for effect. As the majority of the

trailer is set inside, the shots I have outside need

to be varied as they break up the inside shots

which could, if you’re not careful, be too boring.

The shots just show how a normal relationship

develops which most of the trailers do and then

when the drama element comes into action, it

goes at a quicker pace, so the location changes

are not as noticeable.

Narrative-

Dialogue is a prominent feature of this film trailer

as this is what happens in the majority of

romantic drama films. Dialogue is a primary and

one of the easiest ways of bringing across the

main basic story line and it also allows the

audience to see the relationship develop.

The intertitles break up all the action in the trailer

and is often, like in my trailer, supported by a

voiceover to further attract the audience’s

attention. The font was chosen specifically to suit

the genre and audience of the film with the text

displayed more like handwriting which is

commonly associated with romance films and

with the text colour being pink, it reinforces the

romance genre of the film. The black background

enables the pink font to stand out but this

background can also reinforce the drama element

to the film.

A very common feature used in romantic drama

films and indeed in my film trailer is the concept

of the boy meets girl idea. This seems to me to be

an effective way of creating a film as that is what

many audiences go for as that is how many

relationships start in real life so the audience can

possibly relate to the characters in the film.

Like most trailers, my film trailer will be left on a

cliff hanger. The whole purpose of doing this is to

allow the audience to feel like they need to know

more which will obviously enable them to go and

watch the film to put an end to the questions that

arise in the head after watching the trailer.

Overall, my film trailer does follow the

conventions of a romantic drama film trailer. I

have purposely stuck to these conventions as

when I was researching into what was currently

available in the film market, romantic drama films

which follow the conventions seemed to sell the

best.

The main image I

have used is split

into two and is

taken from the

trailer itself. This is

the main reason

why the quality of

the pictures ate

not the best

quality possible. I

saw this type of

thing in a different

poster and I think

it is effective as it

shows the passion

of the relationship

by the two

characters looking

into each other’s

eyes so despite

the characters not

looking directly at

the audience like

many posters do, I

think I have

followed a

convention by the

fact that it shows

a romance film.

The top of the magazine features the two lead actor and actress names. This makes them easily

visible to the audience as they are a selling point to the film. They are written in a white font to

enable them to fit in with the poster and create some different colour at the top of the poster to

attract the eye.

I have included a

review on my film

poster. Reviews

are a good way of

selling your film to

the audience as

they feel that if

someone popular

likes it then they

will like it too

enabling them to

go and watch the

film. The fact that

the stars are in

yellow and the

text is in black

enables it to stand

out compared to

other things

around it.

The title of the

film is the largest

piece of text on

the page which

follows a

convention of film

posters.

Surprisingly to me,

many posters

feature the title of

the film in the

centre third of the

poster so I have

done that here

and I believe that

it is in an

appropriate place

as it is easily eye

catching along

with the image.

The certificate of

the film is near

the bottom of the

poster with the

billing block.

Despite being an

important factor,

it will not help sell

the film which is

the main purpose

behind the film

poster.

The billing block is the smallest piece of text on the film

poster. This provides all the production details of the film.

The reason why this is so small is because it doesn’t really

help sell the film to the audience, it is just there to credit

the main people who were behind the film.

Underneath the billing block is some other information

regarding the film such as the social media pages, the

release date and the website for the film. This allows the

audience to refer to other pages if they want to know

more about the film and is a standard feature of the

poster.

When comparing another romantic drama film poster

to mine, it is clear that there are some similar features.

The two lead actor and actress names are at the top of

the poster. The title of the film is again towards the

bottom of the poster like mine and is at the largest

piece of text on the page. The billing block is included

at the bottom of the poster like mine also. Some

differences include that the main image covers the

whole of the poster not just one part of it. There seems

to be a split in that some posters do use the main

image as the background and some do not. I tried to

keep the colour scheme very strict on my poster so

decided against it.

The poster below uses a different background and has

a similar concept to mine design wise. I used this

poster in my research to other film trailers so this

poster has influenced me in some ways whilst creating

my own product.

It was important that the magazine cover had a colour scheme that it sticks too as that

is what the convention of film magazines is. I chose a dark background as it allows

everything on top of it in a bright colour to stand out which is why the masthead is

white to make it stand out. The masthead is the largest piece of text on the page as it

allows the audience to see the title of the magazine as this is one of the selling points of

the magazine. This is a typical convention of a film magazine.

Under the

masthead, there is a

slogan with ‘reviews

for you’. The word

‘you’ is used to

make the audience

feel like they are

being directly talked

at- to involved

them. Underneath

that, the issue

number, date and

price are revealed.

This is in small

writing as it is not as

important as other

features on the poster.

The main image is

going to be one of

the main focuses on

the magazine. Both

characters are

looking directly at

the camera which

makes it look like

they are looking out

to the

audience/reader of

the magazine. This

is in the centre of

the cover which is

arguably, where the

eye focuses in the trailer.

Underneath the

masthead, the

website for the

magazine is found.

With many paper-

based media

starting and

predicting to be on

the decrease,

companies are now

looking towards new

media technologies

such as the internet

to base their

products around as

that is the way that

the media will be

going.

Next is a puff which

gives the audience

short and snappy

information of a free

item. This is based

on the bold and

bright colour of

yellow as it stands

out and this is an

important selling

point of the

magazine as many

people like free things.

To match the top of the magazine cover, I have added a strapline to the bottom of the film magazine cover to make it look

symmetrical in a sense and also, I feel that the magazine looks more professional this way. Both catch the eye of the audience because of the bold yellow colour.

The barcode at the bottom of the magazine cover is a typical and necessary convention of a film poster. This allows the magazine to be sold so it is a vital factor.

There are several cover lines/sell lines on this magazine cover which

I think my film magazine cover does follow the

conventions of a film magazine cover. It contains all the

necessary features that the magazine needs to have

such as a masthead, a main image and a bar code and

it also has some anchorage text, sell lines and more. I

have gone for the standard background of black as it

allows everything else on the page to jump out.